LONDON, Dec 15 (Reuters) – Jimmy Lai’s son Sebastien said Britain should make his father’s release a precondition to closer relations with China, after the pro-democracy campaigner was found guilty of sedition and collusion by Hong Kong’s High Court on Monday.
“It’s time to put action behind words and make my father’s release a precondition to closer relationships with China,” Sebastien Lai told a press conference in London.
The verdict against his 78-year old father, who is a British citizen, means he could be jailed for life.
Sebastien said he was “heartbroken” over his father’s poor health, and that the China-imposed national security law had been weaponised against someone who “essentially said stuff that they didn’t like”.
(Reporting by Catarina Demony and Sam Tabahriti, editing by Sarah Young)
